In order to maintain the balance and strength of Philippine Azkals as they are to face the team from Kuwait, Filipino-Dutch midfielder Jason de Jong arrived in the Philippines to join back in the group.
He will be rejoining the Philippine Azkals for he was one of the original members who played during the 2010 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup. The mentioned game was the kick-off competition wherein they had made their name paving their way towards their achievement right now.
Since two star players from Azkals will not be able to play for the first game in the home-and-away game for the next level of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifier due to the two (2) yellow cards they got on the home game held at Rizal Memorial Stadium against the Brave Reds of Sri Lanka more players were added not just for replacement but for a better group also.
The two players who will not play for the 1st game versus Kuwait were the team captain Aly Borromeo and Stephan Schrock, the midfielder. That was the not-so-good part of the historic victory of the Azkals against Brave Reds wherein they scored 4 goals leaving Brave Reds with 0 goals at all. The aggregate score resulted to 5-1 score.
The mentioned victory is a history for the Philippines for this is the first time that their football team was able to make it to the next level for the FIFA World Cup Qualifier.
De Jong has been in football for a long time and he arrived in the Philippines from Belgium via Hongkong.
Aside from De Jong, other player who will be joining the team were Filipino-Danish Jerry Lucena, Filipino-German John Patrick Hinrichsen, and Filipino- Icelandic Ray Jonsson. The addition of this players in the Azkals is expected to boost more the morale of the team as they faced the stronger team from Kuwait.
Observing the previous games of Azkals especially the very recent match against Sri Lanka, De Jong was quoted saying that he thinks that the team got a good chance in beating Kuwait. He further mentioned that he had seen the potential, determination and the growth of the players especially they skills for the play.
As a way of conditioning, De Jong had been on training while in Belgium. The home-and-away game for the Football team of Kuwait and Philippines is set on July 23 (Kuwait) and on July 28 (Philippines).
Upon returning to Azkals, the Filipino-Dutch said that he feels great of being back.
